Monday, August 29, 2016

Death by Cable TV Wire. Anyone?

I don't know if I'm the only one who notice these disconnected cable TV wires dangling from electric posts. This is dangerous to pedestrians, bicycle and motorcycle riders especially at night when they are invisible. The copper and aluminum wires that protrude from its insulators are sharp and can cause cuts or gouging.

My forehead was gashed by one these things. I was able to evade the wire because I was in low gear. Had I been travelling at high speed, which I seldom do, the velocity of the motorcycle and the swaying action of the wire could have gouge one of my eyes out of its socket.

I don't know who should be doing something about this, but I hope the authorities or the utilities will act before someone gets injured or die because of these hanging cables.

The electric post ain't what they used to be. I seldom look up so I guess it took me a while to notice that they have become monstrously ugly. They have accumulated loads of wires that seem to bend them with exhaustion, to think that we are in the wireless communication age.

Another thing is that they have become shorter because roads are periodically repaved and the accumulated layers of asphalt and concrete has elevated the road a few meters in decades while these posts have not been replaced since they were put up there by MERALCO. That's why death by electrocution among construction workers have increased in the past years.

How about this protruding water pipe? This thing deprives pedestrians of precious walking space. I'm trying to figure out what happened here.

I could only guess that the water utility company was not informed of the on-going rehabilitation of Taytay Bridge or they simply did not think that they need to relocate the pipe for reasons. But the bridge's drain is atop a water line and the excavation necessitates moving the pipe, unfortunately concrete was already poured and dried when they found this out. Which ever, lack of foresight and miscommunication was the problem.

Anyway, the solution is pure simian genius. Obviously, they do not want to dig up concrete and put the coupling under ground,so they settled to put it above the pavement. A car or jeepney wheel rolling over this pipe, which is highly probable given the density of traffic here, could create a geyser pumping out thousands of liters of potable water into the thirsty concrete pavement.